Up Up Girls!
Up Up Girls! (アップアップガールズ)is a Japanese girl group unit consisting of seven former Hello! Pro Kenshuusei members currently under UP-FRONT CREATE. They were originally known as Up Front Girls (Kari) (アップフロントガールズ(仮)), but they changed to their current name in June, 2011. As the name implies, the group is still in its tentative stage.Unlike other girl groups that were under UP-FRONT PROMOTION, Up Up Girls were not part of Hello! Project. Up Up Girls performed live every Thursday at MAP Theater, Akihabara, as one of the regular weekday acts until the theater was closed down. For a short time they moved their act to Hatsudai The DOORS. They still regularly perform at different venues All members of Up Up Girls are also member of UFZS, a K-Pop dance cover group which was formed long before Up Up Girls. Members Minami -Red Konatsu-Pink Saki-Green Ayano-Purple Akari-Yellow Azuka-Orange Manami-Blue History 2010 After their last Shinjin Kouen concert in November, Hello! Pro Egg underwent a major change, in which it dramatically slimmed down its membership by graduating over half its members. Sengoku Minami was among the first to announce her training completion from Hello! Pro Egg, through a Hello! Project fan club website in December. 2011 Following Sengoku's announcement, Mori Saki, and then Furukawa Konatsu, also announced their training completion in January. On March 3rd, a new project was announced for 5 of Hello! Pro Egg members: Sato Ayano, Arai Manami, Sekine Azusa, Furukawa Konatsu, and Mori Saki. In March, it was revealed that a new TV show featuring the previously mentioned five and Sengoku Minami would be aired on Sky Perfect TV channel, entitled Up Front Girls. This was the first mention of the group name. Not long after, Sato, Sekine and Arai announced their training completion. Various Internet social media also opened for Up Front Girls, such as Ameba blogs, a Ustream channel, and a staff Twitter account. In early May, Up Front Girls held a series of shows for a fan club event. In the last show of the event, Saho Akari, who had already completed her training in Hello! Pro Egg in April, made a surprise appearance, and announced herself as a new member of Up Front Girls. The show was broadcast live through Nico Nico Douga. In early June, each member was finally assigned an image color. This procedure was shown live on their weekly Ustream show, where each member actually picked their own image color. The order of this process was determined by two games played before. The result was Sengoku – red, Furukawa – pink, Mori – green, Sato – purple, Saho – yellow, Sekine – orange, and Arai – blue. In late June, 2011, at their weekly Ustream show, to the members' surprise, the management decided to change the group name to "Up Up Girls (Kari)". A few days later, it was revealed that the group has been chosen as one of the regular performers at a new stage at Akihabara: MAP Theater, a joint collaboration between PigooHD and Sofmap Akihabara. In September 2011 the officials at the MAP Theater ordered all performances to be stopped after a government inspection found the theater to be unsafe. While the theater was being fixed performances were temporarily moved to a new venue, Hatsudai The DOORS. Eventually the MAP Theater was officially closed, and performances were then continued at various venues. In late 2011 the group collaborated with the South Korean duo TENSI LOVE, by acting as backup dancers for their performances. The group also performed covers of two of the groups songs at events, "Shine" and "Cake House". Soon after this at another event, the instrumental of a new song was revealed to the members; it was to be their first original song. It was decided that their next project would be to debut as Korean artists. 2012 In January 2012 the group performed a tentative version of their still-untitled original song over Ustream. The next month they performed the song yet again and it's title was announced to be "Going my ↑". Up Up Girls were invited to perform as the opening act at IDOL NATION, on August 11. Up Up Girls and THE Possible will perform together at Shinjuku Blaze. The event is set for October 7. In a "Road to Korea" video released in August 2012 the producer of the group announced that Furukawa Konatsu would now be the leader of the kpop dance cover group UFZS. Around late December, it was announced that the Up Up Girls were releasing their first album. 2013 It was revealed that Up Up Girls, along with THE Possible and Kikkawa Yuu would be guests at the upcoming Winter Hello! Project tour. The Up Up Girls performed Chopper☆Chopper at the concert. A 2 part horror movie titled Ada ~ADA~ featured all the members from Up Up Girls in it, and had Sato Ayano and Sengoku Minami taking on the lead roles. The movie was directed by Koji Shiraishi and was released on July 13. In June, it was announced Up Up Girls would collaborating with singer groups Vanilla Beans, Caramel Ribbon,and Lyrical School's Mei o form the group T-Palette mini All Stars and release the single Bad Blood/Hereafter, which is the soundtrack to the movie Ada ~ADA~. On July 15, Up Up Girls released their very first music video on Recochoku, the music video was for the song Up Up Typhoon. On October 1, they were transferred from UP-FRONT PROMOTION to UP-FRONT CREATE. On October 31, Up Up Girls announced at Starry Night/Seishun Buildup's promotion event that each member will go to one of the 7 major cities in Japan to promote the group. On November 28, it was announced that Up Up Girls would be on the Disney song cover album "Disney Rocks!!! Girls Power!", along with 15 other artists. The song they sing on the album is "We're All In This Together" (known in Japan as "Minna Star!") from High School Musical. The album was released on January 22, 2014. On December 16, it was announced that Up Up Girls would be releasing their first Christmas song titled "Santa Claus" on December 22nd. It is a (Kari) CD, so it is a limited release. 2014 On February 6, it was announced at The Possible vs Kikkawa Yuu vs Up Up Girls Kakko Kari ~Kikkawa Yuu and Possi Possi Girls Kakko Kari~ collaboration concert that Up Up Girls would be collaborating with Kikkawa Yuu and THE Possible to form the group Team Makenki (Kari). Their first original song is Mugen, Fly High!!. On February 12, it was announced that Up Up Girls' album "Second Album (Kari)" will come in different jacket covers for the areas covered by the 7 Major Cities Operation: Hokkaido, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kansai, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Other areas will have the earlier announced jacket covers: regular edition and limited edition. UFZS All Up Up Girls members are also a member of UFZS. UFZS is a dance unit focusing mainly on covering Korean pop songs. It is produced by Josei Jishin. The group was revealed in late February, 2011, long before Up Up Girls was even revealed to the public. Initially formed to compete in a K-dance competition, "DREAM ON! vol.2", the group has since made a few appearance in a number of events and competitions, including the Japanese round of the Korean TV talent show, Superstar K3''.'' UFZS was originally a five members unit: Furukawa, Mori, Sato, Sekine, and Arai. Sengoku and Saho joined later in May, 2011, making all Up Up Girls members also members of the dance unit. Albums & Singles Imfgfhhfykage.jpg|2013 アップアップガールズ_201301A.jpg|2013 Artist2.jpg|2012 UUGAUG1.jpg|2012 UUG2.jpg|2011 Up-up-girls.jpg|2011 Img20110618171538946.jpg|UFZS UFZS.jpg|UFZS External Links *Official Website *Official Blog *Official News Blog *Official YouTube Channel *UFZS YouTube Channel *Ustream Channel *Nico Nico Douga Channel *Up Up Girls staff Twitter account *Sky Perfect Channel page *PigooHD page *MAP Theater page *Josei Jishin UFZS video series NEOBK-1503145.jpg|2013.05.28 Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st Document Photo Book RUN! Upga RUN! (Kari) V23VAs5.jpg|2014.02.07 GiRLPOP 2014 Spring (Back cover) 6d0a49ab09cf1d66a6e21010008ef444.jpg|2013.12.20 Luck You Vol.36 PhotoTechnicdigitalupupgirls.jpg|2013.09.20 PHOTO TECHNIC DIGITAL 13E5B9B44E69C88E58FB720E8A1A8E7B499E5A4A7.jpg|2013.03.01 De-View April 2013 Issue BounceDecember2012.jpg|2012.11.25 bounce issue 350 Up Up Girls 2014 Calendar.jpg|2013.09.XX Up Up Girls 2014 Calendar Up Up Girls 2013 Calendar.jpg|2012.12.19 Up Up Girls 2013 Calendar with pictures taken by Hirofumi Nagano JTIR9WB.jpg|2013.08.23 Up Up Girls (Kari) Taiban Angya (Kari) ~Official Bootleg BOX Dvd_thedvdB.jpg|2013.08.28 Up Up Girls (Kari) THE DVD ~Mini MV Shuu Omaketsuki DAKUFBW-1215.jpg|2012.12.12 Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st LIVE Daikanyama Kessen (Kari) Dvd_roppongikessenB.jpg|2013.04.03 Up Up Girls (Kari) 2nd Live Roppongi Kessen (Kari) 67680293AE29F2A4BA4E18AD7DCA66A5303F1Fashx.jpg|2013.07.31 UP UP GIRLS (KARI) 3rd LIVE Yokohama BLITZ Dai Kessen (KARI) Up_Up_Girls_(Kari)_1st_Live_House_Tour.jpg|2013.12.25 Up Up Girls (Kari) 1st Live House Tour Apuga Dainishou (Kari) Kaisen NEOBK-15031456.jpg|2011.08.09 Up Up Girls (Kari) ga Up Front Girls (Kari) Datta Koro no Event DVD ni Narimashita!! Upupgirlsdvd.jpg|2011.12.28 Up Up Girls (Kari) no Natsu no Event no DVD wo Fuyu ni Hatsubai shichaimasu!! Nenmatsu ppoi omake tsuki! (Kari) THE DVD Part.2 Dvd_goingmywayB.jpg|2012.04.27 Up Up Girls (Kari) ga Going my↑ wo Hatsu hirou shita Live no DVD (Kari) THE DVD Part.3